Big Choices: The Future of Health Insurance for America's Families

Edited by Kenneth S. Apfel and Betty Sue Flowers

Although there is a growing consensus that the U.S. health care system is deeply flawed and needs to be remedied, there is little consensus on how to implement or pay for the solutions. Big Choices: The Future of Health Insurance for America?s Families examines a range of federal policy options for increasing access to health insurance to America?s vulnerable populations. The book includes presentations, discussion, and articles by more than 30 state and national policymakers and scholars with a variety of perspectives on the looming health care crisis. Among the topics covered are health insurance tax credits, the expansion of public programs such as Medicaid and the State Children?s Health Insurance Program, and the establishment of a single-payer national health insurance program.

The book is based in part on a major policy symposium held in Austin, Texas, in April 2003 under the sponsorship of the LBJ School?s Center for Health and Social Policy and the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum.